Lincoln County, SD Trash & Recycling: Yard Waste Collection (2026)

Chapter 52 of the Lincoln County Code splits the county's solid-waste system into two county facilities, a transfer station for general garbage and a recycling center for source-separated materials, but § 52.04 draws a hard line around a short list of items neither facility will take. Subsection (A)(3) names yard waste specifically, which § 52.01 defines narrowly as grass clippings and leaves, distinct from the code's separate tree, brush, and garden waste definition covering tree branches, brush, wood, wood shavings, and garden waste. The same exclusion list bars oils, gasoline, and other petroleum products; hazardous materials; lead acid batteries; waste tires; white good appliances; and fence wire from both facilities.

Under § 52.04(B), anyone bringing a load to the transfer station authorizes the manager or a designee to inspect it before deposit, and if excluded material such as yard waste turns up in that inspection, the manager may refuse the entire load and charge the hauler the cost of the inspection; all hauling units are also subject to random load inspections. Because grass clippings and leaves cannot go to either county facility, residents and haulers in unincorporated Lincoln County must arrange composting or another disposal method outside the transfer station and recycling center system.

The Board of County Commissioners sets the transfer station's rates and licensing fees annually under § 52.02, and the exclusion sits within the same licensing and inspection framework that governs every hauler using county roads. Violations of § 52.04, including attempting to deposit yard waste at either facility, are penalized under the chapter-wide § 52.99 penalty provision.